Hard graphics at 20000 Volts

28 Jul 2006 Category: Features, Graphics, Japan, Music

The other night my music friends took me out to Koenji to enjoy one of the countless gritty, dirty and dark live houses around that area. By the time I arrived at the bottom of all the steps at 20 000 volts I already forgot the reason why I came here in the first place… Distracted by all those amazing stickers and flyers covering walls and stairs, I spent hours in front of the entrance taking pictures…

Some of the stickers were clearly Punk, Rock, HardCore, Goth or Noise. The longer I studied all the different variations of drawings, typography and icons though, the more I realized, that I wasn’t able to distinguish which is which.

What would this one be?

Punk, because it has a star in it? Actually looks a bit too stylish for me….

The longer I looked, the more repetative motifs I found, too. Obviously, the skull is the Number 1 symbol (next to spiders, naked or dead women and gruelling cutting tools).

Here is my personal skull collection for you:

But of course, not only the stickers are cool! Please spare some moments of awe for those event posters:

Typography might make it easier to point out the different genres, I thought…. Let’s start with this one:

Hm! If I look at the Gendou Missile’s homepage, I could guess that by their hair color they are slightly punky, but I wonder who irons their shiny suits!?

This could be anything, if you ask me. Well, this place is around for over 25 years, so that band might even be dead already…

“Uleshka, concert’s starting!”

Oops! Camera back in my bag, a grin at the doorman and off into the dark, small room at the end of the stairs. What did I see? Two men on the stage, one big and one small with countless self-made noise-devices on tables in front of them starting an extatic, almost epileptic journey.

The Incapacitants with Toshiji Mikawa (the small one) and Fumio Kosakai (the big one) were the heroes of the night! Not only famous for their aggressive, energetic style and the beauty of their noise, those two elderly gentlemen are also famous for their wild performance, rhythmic convulsions and final throwing themselves into the crowd. Along with Hijo Kaidan, Merzbow, C.C.C.C., and Solmania, The Incapacitants are one of the most well known noise bands which started out in the early ’80s.

Why have you never heard of them before, then? Because of the members’ other work: Mikawa is a bank employee and Kosakai works in a government office. That is why they have rarely toured inside or outside Japan.

One thing is certain though, not only the stickers were worth exploring this legendary venue, this performance made me feel as if I was pumped through the tight vessels of the Tokyo underground in a rhythmic pulse.

27 Comments

1. Awesome post thanks for sharing.

   Posted by: Mr G on July 28th, 2006 at 11:42 pm

2. I love how visual the articles on this site are! Always great photos and images.

   Thanks!

   Posted by: James P on July 29th, 2006 at 4:07 am

3. never in the philippines would we have something like that.

   Posted by: aaron on July 29th, 2006 at 9:20 am

4. Wrong!
   Coffins isn’t even remotely goth…
   It looks more like a crust-grind punk band.

   hell looks more like metal in the oldschool vein ala venom.

   and well metal bat well they have metal in thier name….

   Posted by: Anonymous on July 29th, 2006 at 4:04 pm

5. Yeah man, it’s like totally crust-grind punk. My favourite punk sub-genre. What happened to journalistic research, eh?

   Posted by: Tim on July 29th, 2006 at 8:26 pm

6. Incapacitants!!!

   Posted by: Ian on July 30th, 2006 at 1:58 am

7. It is really fantastic in substance and feel. Inspiring as art and design.

   Posted by: ヤーッコ on July 30th, 2006 at 3:15 am

8. To reply to Anonymous and Tim, I think Uleshka’s article is more on the aesthetic of the stickers’ designs and her interpretations of that look rather than what they actually are.

   It’s interesting getting a person’s view on this kind of stuff especially when they aren’t familiar with the scenes/groups. I’m not too familiar on the Japanese side of things but I’m somewhat entrenched in the underground Music scene in Hamilton, New Zealand.

   Posted by: Matt on July 31st, 2006 at 11:43 am

9. hahaha! Matt, thanks for saving me! I wasn’t even vaguely serious about that, actually but nice to see that people read those articles closely ;-) Best greetings to everyone! (Mr. Anonymous included)

   Posted by: Uleshka on July 31st, 2006 at 5:26 pm

10. To reply to Matt, I was aware of that and was trying to make light of Mr. Anonymous’ response - I think next time I need to make better use of emoticons ;)

    Fun article though! I love the graffiti/stickers that adorn the smaller venues in Tokyo.

    Posted by: Tim on July 31st, 2006 at 7:49 pm

11. I sensed some sarcasm! That’s what italics are for :)

    Posted by: Matt on July 31st, 2006 at 9:51 pm

12. Inu-Panchi = My favorite ^^
    Would their sequel be Neko-Panchi?

    Posted by: ヤーッコ on August 2nd, 2006 at 9:37 am

13. http://www.youtube.com/results?search=incapacitants&searchtype=searchvideos&search=Search

    Posted by: tom on August 2nd, 2006 at 11:11 pm

14. A pleasure to read that post. Well written.

    Posted by: Charles Frith on August 3rd, 2006 at 12:23 am

15. who cares if it’s a particular sub-genre. Comes accross as so arrogant when people do that.

    Great article. I’m in Japan this month and will def. Check out 20,000 volts as a result of this article. Thanks for the article :)

    Posted by: Doc G on August 7th, 2006 at 5:55 pm

16. [...] Punk rock and heavy metal graphics from Tokyo’s underground. Even better: breakdancers and tattooed robots vs. samurai. [...]

    Posted by: daily dos: island peoples on mun2 :: Spanglish Without Barriers on August 12th, 2006 at 12:42 pm

17. that unidentifiable band looks like street (something) squad. Could also be Spirit. I havent figured out the middle to end bit of the top. Cool pics!

    Posted by: Dozer on August 13th, 2006 at 4:57 am

18. ni-man volts is so underground it’s on the floor below the basement! Take a torch and some earplugs.

    Posted by: Marek on August 29th, 2006 at 8:44 pm

19. Hi,
    I had a punk clothing store on St. Marks Pl. in the late 70’s & 80’s. I did clothing for Blondie made Joey Ramones leather jacket among others. I have just resurrected my look with a new website http://www.natashanyc.com and I want to link up with as many punk sites that I can. I am sending you some photos, from the late 70’s and my website banner. I hope you will consider this.
    Natasha

    Posted by: natasha on October 26th, 2006 at 7:38 am

20. hello i’m french graphiste&musician guy (my poor english sorry)I seek contact every where on the earth, from myspace you can go on my website http://markaweb.free.fr

    thanx, Marc

    Posted by: marka on February 23rd, 2007 at 7:51 pm

21. These hard rock punk symbols have been around for a while. In our society people often like to express themselves, in many different forms. At http://www.bodyartmaster.com punk and demonic arts are portrayed on bodies.

    There is always going to be a zing and a zang, people will ways want to be unique and different from one another. Conformity will be hard to achieve because it kills the nature of all arts.

    Posted by: jack on August 16th, 2009 at 4:48 am

22. i think the complicated one says “strecker sound”

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